Finance
What to know:
- SBI Holdings, armed like a mischievous school‑boy thief, has inked a letter of intent to snag a chunk of Bitbank and intends to make the crypto exchange join its ever‑blooming digital‑asset garden.
- The move comes as Japan tightens its purse strings, eyeing a shift that would badge cryptocurrencies with the coveted status of “financial product” under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act-expect this to notizz when fiscal 2027 rolls around.
- Ironically, this Bitbank grab follows SBI’s earlier cloak‑and‑dagger play-absorbing Bitpoint, eyeing a majority stake in Singapore’s Coinhako, and partnering with Visa to spin ordinary shopping sprees into buckets of BTC, ETH, or XRP.
Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Holdings, with the swagger of a grand old Swindler, plots to acquire a slice of Bitbank, one of the country’s grandest crypto exchanges.
In a daring flourish, the Tokyo‑based broker sent a letter of intent to Bitbank Co., Ltd. to buy a chunk of its shares and weave it into its tapestry as a consolidated subsidiary-an announcement that landed on the tip of Friday’s morning.
SBI’s grand scheme, in a tone that borrows from an adventure novel, portrays the Bitbank twist as a piece of a larger puzzle to enlarge its crypto dominion and fortify its foothold just as Japan threatens to stir the regulatory pot.
Last month, Japan’s cabinet gave a thumbs‑up to a draft amendment that would officially label cryptocurrencies as financial products, putting them under the same umbrella as stocks and other securities. If the law sneaks through the current parliament, it could stand in force as early as fiscal 2027.
Bitpoint, a regulated Japanese crypto exchange offering spot trading and a weird on‑chain bond that gives back rewards in XRP, fell under SBI’s net two days before.
Just as a storyturn in a Dahlian tale, SBI has already plotted to snag a controlling stake in the Singapore‑based, MAS‑regulated platform Coinhako, unveiled its plans two months prior.
A side plot reveals SBI’s partnership with Visa to launch credit cards that automatically turn your spending into a stream of crypto-BTC, ETH, or XRP-allowing you to gather digital treasure through mundane purchases, a revelation that landed in the press on Friday.
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2026-05-01 14:20